18 celebrate graduation from new probation program

"Yay, Daddy!" the toddler said again and again as Cole spoke to the audience, even as he thanked her for "giving me the strength to keep wanting to do the right thing."

Cole was among 18 of Mendocino County's first graduates from a newly instituted program that uses "moral recognition therapy" for high-risk offenders on probation at the county's newly formed Day Reporting Center. The program, run by contractor BI Incorporated as part of the state realignment program to relieve overcrowding in prisons, aims to reduce California's 80-percent recidivism rate.

"I never had an award before," Cole said to a packed house at the Saturday Afternoon Club during the Thursday night "transition celebration" put on by BI and county probation, which share space in the Day Reporting Center. "I'm always used to being the bad guy, so this has been hard for me. This is the first thing I've ever graduated in my life."

The trained social scientists (called "behavioral change managers," not case workers) at BI are trained to treat those kinds of tough clients, the ones who don't want help and would rather go back to jail than do the hard work required to change their lives, according to Garbie.

One of the techniques they use, he said, is to expect and "roll with resistance," rather than fighting it. "Check your ego at the door" is another motto, not just for the clients, but for the staff, according to Garbie.

The clients are referred to the program through the court system, and are typically resistant at first, Garbie said.

"This is not for everybody; there is no perfect system," he said. "But the bottom line is that it works. You are allowed to be who you are, but you are also required to grow."

The program, he noted, does not offer employment training, anger management or parenting classes, although managers may recommend those services to clients as they progress through the stages of taking responsibility for their lives.

About 25 clients -- most of whom have been in and out of the county jail and state prison systems for years -- work their way through the program's three phases, which entail 16 steps. The program includes regular reporting to the center, random alcohol and drug testing, consequence-and-reward treatment and training centered around a workbook, exercises and role-modeling aimed at changing the way a client sees himself or herself and others.

The program began in Mendocino County 10 months ago, and each of the graduates had been in the program between six and 10 months, he said.

In the words of the first graduates:

"E plus R equals O," said graduate David Shannon, giving the audience a formula to use in every aspect of life, which, he said, if applied correctly, brings success. He explained, "Event plus response equals outcome ... It doesn't matter what you're faced with in your life; how you respond to it determines how the end will come out."

Not only did the BI program address graduate Clarence Christian's addiction, he said, but "dug deeper to target the issues that fed my addiction."

He was encouraged as he went through the process, "You're a good person; do what you're supposed to do with your life.'"

Some of Christian's favorite nuggets of wisdom that he wanted to pass on were, "Life is 90 percent attitude and 10 percent circumstance," "life is what you make of it," and "you can't master your future if you're still a slave to the past."

Betty Petitt said the hardest thing to overcome was her lack of faith in herself.

"I just didn't believe in myself. Today I do," she said.

Joshua Moore, who said he had started drinking at 9 years old, looked at his watch and told the audience he had been sober for "16 months, 21 days, 11 hours and nine minutes." Step One, he said, was to be honest with himself.

He shared a few words of wisdom: "Behold the turtle: it only makes progress when he sticks his neck out.' I may have had to be slow and steady, but you know what? I finished it."

Marcus Duman used his anger to push him through the program, he said, because the fact that many thought he couldn't complete it made him want to prove them wrong.

"It's like a cowboy song," said Edward Vikart, describing how he was getting his life back.

David Amador described having his family disown him, compared to now having a full-time job and supporting his family.